"We" had an incident (actually a bizarre gardening accident) yesterday that resulted in a cut iPod earbud wire.

I'd hoped to fix it with a quick wire strip/solder/tape job but the wires inside (4 in total) were covered in some non-conductive material in lieu of the strippable plastic casings I expected. I tried scraping it off but it was tedious and didn't seem to be working.

The eventual solution: separate the wires, then burn the ends with a candle flame. Solder, tape, and continue "rocking".